This is my experience working in an orphanage and children's hospital in Iasi, Romania for the summer of 2008.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

May 19, 2008 (Monday)

Today I felt much more energized than last week. I needed a day of rest – I’m not sure you could call yesterday a restful day, but I needed a day away from the kids to gather myself physically and emotionally. I woke up and did Tae-Bo which always starts my day off right, and had some fruit for breakfast. For one of our assignments all of us have to live on a middle income Romanian food budget for a week. We only have 50 lei which is equivalent to about $21 US dollars for a weeks worth of food…haha…nice huh? No wonder Romanians are so slender. All we are going to be eating this week is fruit, bread and cheese probably. We’ll see how it goes…it shall be quite interesting…no chocolate for me – that’s gonna be really really really hard!

The orphanage was good as normal. Sometimes it’s hard to see the workers be harsh with the kids though. When we came in from outside today one of the workers wanted Andrei to go somewhere and she kept following after him and yelling at him – but he can’t hear…so I was really confused. Whitney Scott and I were like, “what does she want him to do?” The poor thing couldn’t understand anything because he can’t hear – at least as far as I know. I WANT someone to adopt him so bad. He is so smart – oh and I was so excited because Andrei repeated some signs I taught him today. He did the sign for “more” and “please.” I’m not sure if he knows what they mean yet, but he will soon. Elisa and I were talking about him. I think he is above average in intellect for his age group.

I got some of the other kids I work with out of their chairs and stretched their legs. Sometimes I wonder what is going on in their minds. Although they can’t move much, they still smile when I smile at them which reminds me that although they aren’t all the way there – they still are. If they can smile in response to your smile then they can at least comprehend emotions and happiness…I think that’s amazing. Even children with disabilities still feel all the same emotions any normal human being feels. Sometimes we forget that people with disabilities are still a human being. It’s sad.

When I left the orphanage Andrei cried again. It breaks my heart every time I leave him. He just clings to me and reaches up screaming bloody murder. Then the workers get mad at him and scold him for being upset that I left. The women here are just not soft with their children. That little 3-year-old boy fully has my heart…not good…I’m going to be so so sad if he doesn’t find a home…I’m going to see what I can do while I’m here. I need to talk to Mario to see if he is even able to be adopted. Apparently parents can put their children in an orphanage, but not let anyone adopt them. That’s pretty much the most selfish thing I’ve ever heard of – it makes absolutely NO sense to me…but a lot of things the people do here don’t.

Today at the hospital was a grand time. Three of us girls played “Go Fish” with Alex. Then directly next to Alex’s bed is a mom and her little boy. The little boy always acts so shy, but I can tell that he likes me. When I was talking to Elisa she said the little boy (mind you he is about 2 years old) was desperately holding on to the stickers I had given him several days before. Then he was fascinated by a little “I Spy” toy that is like a bean bag but has different objects and trinkets you can find amidst the crystal beads. His mother is a sweetheart too – she seems very soft spoke and very sweet unlike most of the women in the hospital. You can tell she has a sweet spirit about her. We said goodbye to them all and that we would see them tomorrow. Before I left I asked Alex what kind of chocolate he likes, because he looked sad that we were leaving. It’s fun to buy the kids treats here – they don’t get them too often and the are very appreciative when they do.

Then us girls went to visit the babies. That was fun as usual. It was really strange though because when I went up to the floor the moms kept coming up to me and saying “posa, posa.” That means picture. I was really confused, but I thought maybe MacKenzie had taken some pictures of the moms and told them she would get them developed. I don’t even have a camera, but MacKenzie had taken a picture with some moms a couple days before and printed it out for them. Pictures are a HUGE deal here. I guess because not many people can afford a camera - let alone get a picture printed off. Then when we were about to leave the other girls came up to get us and all of a sudden I walked out of my room into the hall and some of the moms were talking to the other girls and they looked quite upset. Apparently what had happened was that the moms who MacKenzie had taken a picture of a few days before, had told some other moms on the same floor. All the moms wanted pictures. Then Elyse had come yesterday and had no idea that MacKenzie had taken pictures in the past and when she went to hold some of the babies some of the moms saw that she had a camera, took it away from Elyse and started taking a bunch of pictures of each mom in every room. It was a mess of a situation! Poor Elyse has to get a bunch of pictures developed now. Then no more. Elyse said one of the moms was so upset she didn’t have a picture developed for her today that she looked like she was gonna punch her. No more pics of the moms with their kids. They will try and take advantage if they can.

There was a new little girl in the hospital today named Florinta. She was beautiful and she was probably about one year old. I gave her a little bracelet that I bought in the states. She loved it. In the same room was a gypsey mom and some other ladies. I kept bringing out toys for her to play with and each time I brought out an object the moms would ask me how much it cost and where I got it from. It was funny…I was like I got it in America and then I would tell them how much it cost in dollars. They seemed amazed. I feel so special being an American.

We had Family Home Evening tonight, and we played a classic game of spoons. One of the girls in the branch that everyone calls J-Lo cornered me and asked me for help with a dance she is trying to make up. She knows that I did dance in high school…I gave her some ideas and showed her some moves, but she wanted me to choreograph the entire thing. I told her I didn’t have the time, but that I didn’t mind looking at it and giving her tips once she was done. People here don’t take “no” for an answer very well. I kept telling her that she could do it herself…she has good style and good moves. She just needs a little more confidence, experience and practice with placement. I have to be careful with her though, because we were warned that she gets clingy, and I think I am the preferred person she wants to attach to right now.

My Final Goodbye to Andrei...

This is how Andrei decided to pose for our final picture together...haha...my little monkey.

Last day with Andrei...

Right after I said goodbye to Andrei...these were the gifts I left with him.

The Branch!

Around the Orphanage!

Alex's Birthday party!

Andrei, Cristi and Andrea...my little orphan angels...

Sitting outside with Maria in my lap and the other girls and their kiddos...

Alex swimming on his back...

The Light of my LIFE! My ANDREI!

tickle...tickle...

Classic Andrei pose...such a little stinker...

Can't Get Enough of the Babes in the Hospital!

A little bit of heaven...

The most gorgeous eyelashes you've ever seen...

I'm in love...

This is the little baby that would copy my laugh every time I laughed... such a cutie!

The Black Sea Adventure

I'm pretty sure this is the best picture we took on the trip...

Mindy and I...

Whitney S. and I laying out...

The GANG!

Burying Kenz...

Elyse carrying the umbrella on the way to the beach...

Right before the banana boat ride!

Putting our gear on for the Banana Boat ride!

No turning back...

We are off...

Burying Mindy...

Hospital Fun!

Mihai! Our little angel.

Yes there is some pink in my hair...

The poor thing did not feel well at all.

Kristi! One of our kids at the orphanage with cerebral palsy. He had to go to the hospital for some treatments.

Andreiseni...A Little Bit of Heaven on Earth

Time for bed!

Sleeping under the stars...

We love horses oh yes we do!

Our little cup of honey to eat from the bee man.

MacKenzie's belly after our fifth feeding...we all felt that way...

Any more food anyone?

The old man who sat across from us at the ceremony...he was adorable.

Flowers we were given by one of the families.

We're about to be fed...again...

All the houses have grapevines that line the ceiling when you go to enter their homes...

The librarian who kept giving us gifts!

I caught a baby duck! I was so excited!

The family that grows vegetables in the town.

The beauty of the lake...

The bee man!

One of the houses we dropped by. We were warmly welcomed.

Andrei and his foster mom.

The Monasteries...

Our professor Dave came for a visit. We tried to pick him up for a cool picture. It didn't work.

The beauty...

GORGEOUS

A reservation we stopped by...I shared my apple with a baby deer.

Mario our Romanian Liason. She is great!

Annie's 20th Birthday!

Under the pavillion...

Annie holding the necklace I got her from Krakow...

The most disturbing display of dead goats in the park we have ever seen...it was sick...only in Romania.

GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN

Our jumping picture...good times...

Whitney S. and I hit legs while we were jumping...

The pyramid...

Reenacting Annie's Drawing!

I was trying to make sure their poses were just right...

This was the black and white picture we took in order to reenact the drawing Annie drew...

Color version....

Our Birthday Girl!

Whitney S.

An amazing pic of Mindy...haha...I love it!

JULY 4th! I'm PROUD to be an AMERICAN!

The gang...

My roomies...we're all dressed in red, white and blue!

Picnic time...

Balloon Toss!

I just got a piece of ice down Annie's pants...haha...poor thing...

MacKenzie just got ice down my pants...

Water fun...good times..

This is the face of Elder Armstrong who just had a bag of ice water thrown on him...

Good times at the Hospital!

I put a fake tatoo on Marius...

We couldn't get her bed side to go down all the way - so I jumped in and played with Alexandra - she recently had another surgery...

Auschwitz and the Holocaust...

Entrance to Auschwitz...we didn't take pics inside out of respect for those who died...

Birkenau...a few miles away from Auschwitz...

Housing...if you could call it that...

Drawing done by children in one of the blocks...

Each block had line after line of this type of bedding...each slot fit four to five people to a bed...

The restrooms in each block...

Pond memorial where the ashes were put after the bodies were burned...

Rubble of the crematorium that was blown up by the Nazis to cover up any evidence of their wrong doings...

Krakow, Poland

We had fun building a pyramid in the courtyard of the Wawel Castle...

Medieval Square!

Our sillly side...

We kept getting lost...but we always found our way!

Feeding the birds in Medieval Square...

My blue bike with a horn! I love that little horn...

Can't tell it's a rental bike huh?....

A little rest from bike riding!

We decided to rent bikes for a few hours and ride around Poland...so fun...

We love our ice cream soo...

Running around...

The girls...

A giant head in Medieval Square...

Whitney Scott decided we each needed an individual photo shoot along the Wawel Castle wall...

My FAVORITE CITY! BUDAPEST...

Yes this picture is real...

So gorgeous it takes your breath away...

Parliament Building! GORGEOUS!

We love chocolate crepes oh yes we do!

Monument to Hungarian Jews that died in the Holocaust...

Ironically I ran into Truman Hunt (CEO of Nu Skin) and Scott Schwerdt (President of Americas and Europe at Nu Skin) when I went to church in Budapest...For those of you who don't know I worked at Nu Skin for over a year, and I was treated very well by the company....What a small world.

Shopping on the bridge...sooooo fun!

On our way home...wornout and sunburned...

The most gorgeous waterfall ever...outside the castle...

The city I love!

Heros' circle...

The castle...

Try saying this word five times fast...haha...

Good ol' sleeper trains...

Largest Jewish synagogue in Europe...

We're soo crazy...

Even on vacation church is a good thing to attend...

SCABIES!!!!!!!!

The night we found out we had scabies we had to take a shower, put the ointment on, then sleep in our outfit that we were wearing the next day...then we had to do it all over again the next day...DANG SCABIES...

Annie and I had fun being dramatic in this picture...

Cream to the rescue!

The Hospital...

Marion....can you say adorable!

Marius giving me a kiss on the cheek after a rough game of arm wrestling...

My Orange Hair...

I was feeling a bit nervous...if only I knew what the outcome was going to be...

This was my hair right after I dyed it...it has now faded (thank goodness) back to a golden blonde...yes - everyone have a good laugh...P.S. Mom I need you to set me up a hair appointment for the day I get home...thank you.

Marion's Funeral...

Picnic with the Priest and Mayor

I felt like I was in a fairy tale!

The priest...

The mayor (left) and a friend (right)...

Oh my Claudio!

My Claudio laughing!

Kenz and I at the hospital...

Dinner with the Moldova Boys

The Hospital

Florine our little trickster...

Alexandra...so adorable! She has been in the hospital for months. She has had several surgeries on her feet.

The gang on the 6th floor...

Claudio...the lost little boy on the 7th floor...

Our little Marion from the orphanage...he needs a kidney transplant desperately or he won't make it...

The lovely hospital floors...

Melissa's Birthday!

This is my favorite pic of Melissa...haha...

Picnic Time!

After a long game of Ultimate Frisbee...

Elyse and Mindy...oh the joy.

My friend Sera and I.

I hand sewed this skirt and wore it to church! I was soooo proud of myself!

Annie made a skirt too...we had to take a pic...

Night on the town....

Mamma Mia Steak House

A bunch of people were handing out flowers in an effort to get final votes for some politician...we didn't vote, but we did have fun with the flowers!

The Hospital...continued

Poor thing had the worst fever...

Alexandra and Roxanna...two sisters...so full of energy and love!

Samson...this little boy cries all day for his mom...

Florine our little flirt...he went back home Friday...he will be dearly missed!

My Little Orphan Kids!

MY ANDREI!

Valentina my little vampire...

Maria...she is always full of surprises!

Iulia...

Constantine...

Irina...

Church

Church and our fellow Relief Society Members!

My Roomies!

SCARY!

This is written all over in our apartment building...guys aren't real respectful of women here.

More Babies!

We found more babies without moms to love...they were hiding from us on a floor we never go to...

He kept falling asleep while I was feeding him...

Annie was blowing on the babies neck...there is NO air conditioning in the hospital and they bundle the kids up. Everytime we pick them up they are drenched in sweat...poor things!

THE HOSPITAL

My sweetheart...the poor thing is a boy, and they dressed him in pink.

Poor thing...everytime he coughs her entire face turns purple.

Our little Octavian!

MacKenzie tried asking the nurse this orphans name and they said "he's an orphan he doesn't have one..." We decided this was too sad so we named him Octavian.

This baby was a newborn orphan. So tiny...The poor thing is having heart surgery soon...

I was blowing on her stomach...she got a kick out of it!

Our little angel...except we call her grumpy because sometimes she doesn't like to smile - but when she does she lights up the room!

Florine and I...he's such a little ladies man!

Countryside of Romania

City of Brashov

Brashov

Mindy and I in the town square of Brashov!

At the Hostel!

Mindy got the bottom bunk, and I got the top...so fun!

The ENTIRE gang at the hostel...

We love each other!

Peles Castle

Can you say GORGEOUS?

I look like I'm in pain...

Dracula's Castle

Part of the gang!

Vlad the Impaler's Castle

The Cemetery and the Old Man

The old man...

The PIATA...it's like an underground market place where everyone brings their fresh fruit and vegetables to sell...it's our favorite place to go so far.

THE CITY OF IASI

View Outside Our Window...

Although you don't see a lot of grass in the city...you can tell it's very green here...I can't wait to see the country side!!

These are the apartments in Iasi...buildings like these cover the city...

A gypsy girl came up and asked us for a banana for her baby brother...we gave one to her - but you have to be careful because more will come and beg you for food.

A gypsy family...you see them walking around sometimes...however, they are discriminated against by the Romanians greatly.

Us girls needed some CHOCOLATE...gogosi is amazing here...it's like an inverted donut. We can't eat too much of these though or we are going to come back weighing a thousand pounds.

Cultural Palace continued...

The Cultural Palace...just down the street from where we live...absolutely gorgeous!

The city wasn't designed to have parking spots...so cars park everywhere...including the sidewalks. The drivers are a little crazy. They don't really follow the the driving laws - then again maybe they don't have any?

The rain loves us!

Embrace the RAIN!

Water in my shoe after the first Sunday...nice...

The Last GIRLS' Night!

Aunt Courtney and me....isn't she simply radiant!

My Mom and Aunt Ariane...but she's like my sister...

The COUNTDOWN begins...

My Attempt to Pack...

I think I need to reorganize...or cut back on the amount of clothes I'm taking...

Such a homemaker...these scrubs will be my best friend in Romania!

Toys for the children!

Whitney's Favorite Quotes

"No individual has the right to come into the world or go out of it, without leaving behind him distinct and legitimate reasons for having passed through it." - George Washington Carver

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ~

"The only things in life you regret, are the risks you didn't take."

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." - Anne Frank